The Home Minister Rajnath Singh has directed the security forces to crack down on the instigators of the mass protests in Kashmir. Chairing a high-level meeting in Delhi which was also attended by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and intelligence chiefs, Singh said schools and colleges in the Valley must be reopened within a week and students should attend without fear. The Home Minister also asked the security forces to try and bring back calm to Kashmir.
In Valley, the statement is being read as a signal that the government is embarking on a security crackdown after concluding that its political outreach has ended up nowhere. But New Delhi may have itself to blame for this. If politics has failed, it is because of the inherent inadequacies of the outreach than for a lack of the response from the separatists in Kashmir. The centre, it is clear, has talked broadly and vaguely about the engagement with Kashmir: there is talk of a solution within the ambit of constitution but no word on its possible contours. In case of J&K, restoration of the state’s lost autonomy could be well within the constitutional framework. But BJP, given its longstanding political position on the state, will hardly go the distance.
Government has talked about the dialogue but without specifying who the government will talk to. Just saying that all the “stake-holders” will be engaged. But both the Home Minister and the BJP leader Ram Madhav have expressed themselves loath to talk to the separatists. It will hardly do if the government talks to the mainstream political parties as they don’t question the political status quo and their politics doesn’t lead to frequent anti-New Delhi uprisings. By the same token, a stage-managed process of talking to obscure and the generally unidentified delegations of people will hardly change anything. What will make a difference is not only an offer of a meaningful dialogue which not only promises staying the course but is also held with the right interlocutors. And in Kashmir, only separatist groups fit this bill.
But as Rajnath Singh’s talk of a security crackdown indicates, the government has all but given up on the dialogue. More so, after Hurriyat refused to talk to the visiting all party delegation. Truth is that the centre will not talk to separatists on their terms and the vice versa, deepening the deadlock. Adding to the complicacy is the soured ties with Pakistan, which inherently hobbles any political initiative on the state. Hence the need for a security response. But the big question is whether putting Army on the ground will address the unrest. If the history of the past 26 years is any guide, it will not. On the contrary, it will only further vitiate the environment and render Kashmir more intractable a problem than it has ever been.
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